


A Little Thing Called Love

by kiwifruit



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cat Levi, Levi being tsundere, M/M, Romance, grisha's pretty evil sorry, kind of, like completely fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-31
Updated: 2013-12-28
Packaged: 2017-12-31 01:25:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1025669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiwifruit/pseuds/kiwifruit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He looked at me from his position and smiled. “My name’s Eren by the way.”</p><p>No. Your name is shitty brat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm just getting started with writing fanfic, so I'm not really sure how long it's going to be etc. etc.  
> Feedback is extremely welcome~! :D

 

The weather was fucking amazing.  
   
The icy rain seeped into my fur and made my black coat drip, adding an extra octave to the irritating drone of the downpour.  
My growling stomach also contributed to the jolly atmosphere.  
   
I gave up my scavenge for food and went to seek refuge under the eaves of a nearby house. I spotted a non-lit lamp post standing alone next to me.  
As I reluctantly sat down onto the soggy ground, I noticed my paws were covered with mud.  
Ugh. Disgusting.  
   
I tried to ignore them for the time being and waited for those stormy clouds to quit dumping bucketfuls of water down to earth. I watched as lightning cracked the gloomy sky like an eggshell, illuminating the clouds with an ominous, dark yellow glow.  
   
My ears twitched to the right as I heard footsteps approaching, and suddenly my view of the grey sky was blocked by a passing human figure. It nearly walked right past me, but at the last moment, glanced sideways at me and stopped in its tracks. I glared at it as best I could in my fatigued state, trying to telepathetically tell it to leave me the fuck alone. But its deep emerald orbs stared back.  
   
I dropped my glare to glance at another flash in the sky, and in that slim moment it came right up to me and knelt down. I glowered at it and stood up, daring it to come any closer.  
“It’s not like I’m gonna hurt you.” he murmured, and reached a hand out as though he was going to fucking _touch_ me.  
I backed up against the wall and snapped my jaws closed around his hand, flattening my ears to visibly express my annoyance. Normally this would be enough for the human to give up and go away.

Apparently not this human. 

  
He just let me keep chewing his hand before grimacing and saying, “You know, that kind of hurts.”  
The exhaustion of wondering around in the rain all day eventually made me let go of his hand. There was a metallic taste in my mouth, and I looked down to see that I had drawn blood from his knuckles. Whatever. Not my problem. Because my problem right now was that I needed food. Food food food food food food.  
   
"Aren't you cold?” He asked, rubbing his now sore hand.  
Well duh.  
“You could come to my house?”  
I’m not entirely thrilled by that idea-  
He lifted me up unexpectedly from the damp ground, and held me in the crook of his arm, shielding me from the pelting rain.  
I probably should have scratched his face and run or something. I mean, isn’t this cat abduction?  
But I didn’t.  
Instead, for some reason, I let his warmth reach my chilled bones, calming me down and making me remember how tired and sleepy I was.  
   
His warmth and comfort lulled me into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

  
   
   
When I opened my eyes, I found myself on a soft, silky surface. I also found that I was no longer sopping wet. I lay there for a bit, unsure of my whereabouts, before everything suddenly came back. That shitty brat.  
   
I sat up, and looked cautiously around, keeping myself stooped low. I was in some sort of small room, and- and my paws were still fucking _filthy_.  
I lifted one up and licked vigorously, not wanting a single piece of dirt on my body. 

 

All of a sudden the door opened, and the kid stepped into the room. He was holding something in his hand, and he grinned when he saw that I was awake. I stopped cleaning myself to glare at him.

“Come on, don’t be so grumpy. Here, I found some tuna in the cupboard.” He said cheerfully as he placed a can of tuna onto the floor.

Tuna!

I eagerly hopped off the bed, and walked impatiently towards the mouth-watering prize. As I chewed on the tuna, he sat down cross-legged beside me and watched me eat.

“I was wondering what to call you.” He spoke thoughtfully when I had finished my meal and was grooming myself, fully satisfied. “I think I’ll name you Levi. Pretty sure I read somewhere that that name means someone who thinks of their own hygiene above everything else.” He looked at me from his position and smiled. “My name’s Eren by the way.”

No. You’re name is shitty brat.

 

He picked up the can from the floor, aimed and executed a "magnificent three-pointer" right into the bin before grinning again and flipping the light switch down. The room was suddenly engulfed in inky darkness, with only the streams of moonlight from the slightly open window to see with.

Lifting up the covers of his bed, he hopped in and struggled for a bit before finding a comfortable position.

“Levi? Wanna come in too?” He asked, rolling sideways so he could see me from the bed.

I glared at him from the floor. Don’t you know that shittiness is contangious?

 

When I made no movement, he gave up and rolled onto his back.

“Night Levi.”

And just a few moments later, soft snoring filled the room.


	2. Chapter 2

I awoke to the warmth of the sun illuminating my face and the sounds of a clumsy creature trying to get changed.

I sleepily opened my eyes to see a brilliant blue sky outside the window. Yesterday’s storm had disappeared as though nothing had ever happened.

I arched my back as I yawned, observing the brat gathering bits and pieces from around the room and stuffing them into a black bag. Just as he was hauling it up onto his shoulder, he noticed that I was awake.

“’Morning, Levi.” He exclaimed, voice muffled by an apple held in his mouth. I hopped off the mattress (In the end, I had decided to sleep at the bottom of the bed last night), and went to grooming my beautiful black fur on the carpet floor.

 “I’ll be going to school, so you can just do whatever.” He said, attempting to pat me on the head before I jerked back away from his hand. “Well, bye!” The wooden door opened and shut, and I was left alone.

 I trotted over to the open window to observe him walk out of the front door downstairs and out onto the street. When he glanced up at the window, I made sure to be thoroughly interested in the lovely tree in the distance. But once he turned back, I followed him with my eyes until his figure disappeared from sight.

 

Hmm. What to do now.

 

I stuck my head out of the window and looked around. I realized that I was entirely free to leave this room and never come back.

 I spied a sunlit patch of lawn down next to the road and leapt out of window gracefully, strolling towards my future bed. I lay down on the soft grass, absorbing the warm light. I dozed off and felt the calm breeze sway the grass gently, tickling my face.

 

* * *

 

 

The blinding afternoon sun roused me from my slumber. It glared into my eyes as I opened them, forcing me to squint. Fuck. About time I changed my napping location.

I sat up lazily, my sight still hazy with sleep. My stomach growled, complaining that I hadn’t eaten since yesterday. I ignored it and started grooming myself.

It growled again. Loudly.

Fine. Fucking shut up, I’ll get some soon.

But I didn’t feel up to catching bugs or mice (for all the effort, they didn’t even taste nice), and nor did I feel like chewing on tasteless plants.

I wanted that amazing tuna from last night.

My brain suddenly worked out an astonishing equation which explained life itself.

Shitty brat = tuna.

I looked up at the sky and saw that it was a fiery blend of red and orange, basking the world in a ruby wash. Hm. Should be about the time that brat found me yesterday.

 

But where was I supposed to meet him? I mean, I’m definitely not going back to the house because then he’ll probably get the wrong idea and think I love him or something, being the louse he is. And it wasn’t like I knew his route home from school…

 

WAIT. Why I’m I even thinking such terrible thoughts? I don’t want to see his shitty face, god. I don’t want to see him at all. I’m staying right here in this sunny spot.

 

 

Ten minutes later, I found myself sitting down next to a lonely lamp post, in the exact same place as yesterday.

Fuck. Why.

I heard the same footsteps approaching, and I hastily went about observing an extremely fascinating pole across the street.

The footsteps faltered for a moment and from the corner of my eyes, I saw the brat grin, surprised, as he saw me.

“Levi!” he exclaimed, the joy evident in his voice. “You waited for me?”

Of course not. What are you talking about? I just came to examine that exotically charming pole over there.

 

He bent down in front of me to attempt touching me _again._

And again of course, he failed. Nobody touches the mighty Levi with their filthy hands.

 

He smiled as he straightened up, and started walking in the direction to the house. He looked back at me and saw that I stayed glued to the spot.

“Aren’t you coming home?”

Pffft. No way.

 

His emerald eyes lingered on me for a moment longer before turning back to walk at a steady pace.

When he was a good distance away, I followed him carefully behind, casually sitting down and looking pointedly away whenever he glanced back.

After an arduous fifteen minutes of that, we finally arrived at the small house.

 

Continuing to ignore his presence, I jumped in through the window into the room, while he opened the front door downstairs. I waited impatiently by the windowsill for him to come up, thumping my tail repeatedly against the glass.

Hurry up, I’m fucking hungry.

 

After a couple long minutes agonizingly passed, the brat finally opened the door. He grinned goofily at me before dumping his bag on the bed and placing some tuna onto the floor.

Took you long enough, slave.

I grumpily hopped down onto the floor and munched on my tuna. At least now my amazing equation was proven.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day was the same, and so was the day after that. I somehow always ended up waiting for him to walk by the lonely lamp, pretending not to notice the wide grin which adorned his face whenever he saw me. Then he would walk home, and I would follow- not because I liked him or anything, of course, but purely because I wanted food.

I didn’t count the days, but quite a few passed before something different happened. Which happened to be today. 

Because as I sat next to the lamp, gazing at the long shadow of the tree in front of me splayed across the ground, I saw human shadows approaching me. Not one, but three.

I glanced up from the ground to see the shitty brat with two unknown humans that I did not and will never wish to get to know or interact with.  

“Levi!” He called in his usual cheery voice. Thoroughly displeased by the appearance of additional humans, I swish my sleek tail and walk nimbly away from the three. Behind me, I hear a girl’s voice asking him whether I was his cat, and a boy’s voice, although higher in pitch, commenting that I was cute.

Excuse me, you two. I would like to point out that first of all, _I_ am not _his_ cat; _he_ is _my_ shitty brat. And second, I am not cute. I am manly as hell.

 

I chose the mature decision to refrain from chewing their feet off, and sprint off in the direction of anywhere but his house, wanting to have absolutely nothing to do with those two tremendously discourteous creatures.

I wandered around the confusing jumble of streets for a while, narrowly missing a few speeding cars. The roads were dirty, and I did my best to weave out f the way of especially dirty patches.

Eventually, when the sun had set and the burning red sky was replaced with a placid navy speckled with silver, I gave in to the whining of my stomach and decided to head home.

I saw light streaming out from his room when I got there, attracting an assorted variety of moths and geckos. Swatting languidly at them with my tail, I perched on the windowsill and observed that the two unidentified humans were still with Eren. Sighing, I give up evading their presence and leap down onto the bed, glaring at the humans on the floor who were discussing some exceptionally intricate thing seemingly called algebra. In the midst of their conversation, one of the humans – a girl with black hair and a large amount of lip gloss – smiled at me and reached her hand up to pat me in between the ears. She didn’t quite get there obviously, and I’m sure ten years from now she will still have the scars from the bite marks I left on her finger. She was probably filthier than that brat, god.

 

The two finally left when the hands of the weird round object on the wall were pointing directly opposite each other vertically. I glowered at Eren, trying to tell him that it was rather unwise of him to bring his humanoid creatures along with him. And also to hurry up with my food.

“Okay, okay I’m sorry.” He said apologetically when I didn’t stop glaring at him even when he placed the tuna down onto the floor for me to eat. “We had to do a group project due tomorrow. Oh, and Levi, you shouldn’t bite people, yeah?”

But shitty brat, that girl seriously deserved that. It was like she wanted me to bite her.

But I stop glaring at him and focus on the delicious fish, feeling my stomach growling as the scent wafted to my nostrils.

As I began chewing on the mouth-watering dinner, he began tossing out various odd objects from his bag.

I sniffed one of them which had fallen close to me, and scrunched up my nose. They smelt dreadfully disgusting _._

Eren chuckled at my disgusted expression. “These are paint, Levi.” He explained, picking one up and squeezing out a drop of vivid blue onto a wooden pallet. “You use them to paint.”

Whatever they were, I didn’t like them.

Once I finished my tuna, I hopped up onto the bed. As I groomed myself I saw the brat pull out a white canvas board and start brushing over lightly with a weird stick. I paused my cleaning to stare curiously. That stick looked fucking _sharp._

 

I soundlessly leapt off the bed and scooted closer to him so I could see what the fuck he was doing. The white canvas was not so white anymore, etched everywhere with grey lines. The lines formed something resembling… me.

“School project.” The brat grinned. “Paint something you love.”

Well shitty brat, clearly this is one-sided love.

 

I watched him ruining the whiteness of the canvas for a while longer, but feeling my eyelids grow heavy curled up right next to where he sat, feeling the warmth radiating from his body. The scraping noises from the sharp stick faltered once in a while, and in those moments of comfortable stillness his hand would reach out to tickle gently on my head.

As I dozed off, I didn’t mind it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I probably keep saying, comments and feedback will be tremendously helpful :)


	4. Chapter 4

For the next few days, the brat was mostly always consumed in his painting. Personally, I don’t really get it because if you had to paint ‘something you love’, then wouldn’t you paint tuna? I mean it’s really quite obvious.

  
But the painting of me did look… not bad, I guess. It was still incomplete, but basically it was of me just looking out with big round sparkly eyes (please tell me I don’t actually look like that) and an open mouth that made it look like I was smiling (I’d rather kill myself than look this happy). In the background you could see a window opening to the view of a blue sky, with rays of light slicing into the room, illuminating the face diagonally.

  
During the day he always kept it in a corner of the room on top of some grey dry stuff that he called newspaper to dry the horrid smelling stuff on the canvas.

  
And it was there now, wafting its terrible scent towards me as I waited impatiently for that brat to come upstairs and give me my magnificent dinner. It was taking way longer than normal today, and it was weird – I could hear crashes and shouts coming from downstairs and I couldn’t recognize one of the voices.

  
He probably tripped or something – not surprising for such a clumsy human.

  
I could hear thumping noises signaling him coming up the stairs, and when the door finally opened, Eren practically threw the food bowl (which he bought home the other day) down onto the floor without even a glance at me and immediately flung himself face-down onto the bed.

  
I didn’t really think much of it and hungrily ate my meal, licking the bowl clean in record time. When I looked up again, the brat was still lying on the bed, not making a single sound.

  
Strange. So very strange for this noisy, annoying kid to suddenly become quiet like this.

  
I observed him for a moment longer before leaping up onto the bed and approaching him with silent footsteps. Sitting down onto the soft blanket next to where his head lay, I cautiously reached my paw forward to touch his exposed neck.

  
Nothing.

  
Oh my god. He probably died.

  
I crouched low to peer into his face, which was pressed into the blankets. I noticed that the left side of his face was beginning to turn a weird bluey colour. I nudged his cheek with my nose gently, and found it was wet.

  
I licked my snout. Salty.

  
More of that mysterious salty fluid fell from his eyes and onto his cheeks and the bed. What the hell were they?

  
I started licking them away. Although they didn’t taste all that delicious, it seemed like that was the only thing I could really do.

Come on Eren, return to your normal bratty self.

After a couple minutes of that, he suddenly reached his arms out around me and pulled me close to his warm body.

  
What do you think you’re doing, you little shit?

  
I thought about gnawing on the arm which was wrapped tightly around me but thought better of it when he buried his face into my fur, soaking it with the water from his eyes. His shoulder shook too, and his breathing came out in quick gasps. Unsure of what to do, I lightly caress his arm with my tail and tell him to stop soaking my fur with those filthy eye water drops. He probably didn’t understand that because the language of cats is much too sophisticated for an unintelligent human like him.

 

Eventually though, liquid ceased falling from his eyes and he took in one last shaky breath before sighing and releasing the tight hold he had on me. I made myself walk calmly to the foot of the bed before furiously licking myself clean, feeling the revolting wetness in my fur. Ugh. I glared at the brat with my most livid, menacing glare I had, telling him that I was never going to allow this to happen again. He noticed me glaring and laughed, muttering an apology. And even though a filthy human had just fucking CUDDLED me, and I could still feel the disgusting salty eye liquid in my fur, his laugh made me feel happy too. Just a little.

  
His bratty self was back, I guess.

  
Still grooming myself, I watched from the corner of my eyes as he slid off the bed and picked up the canvas from the corner of the room. He pulled his bag closer to him and began tossing the tubes of repulsive goo out, and from here I could clearly see a blooming bruise on his cheek. It looked painful, but the brat didn’t do anything about it – it was like he hardly noticed it.  
His head was at the same level as mine from his position on the floor, and I couldn’t stop myself reaching out to touch it softly. He flinched a bit, but then smiled. “It’s okay.”

  
I remembered that foreign voice I heard shouting from downstairs. That person probably did something.

  
Who was it?


	5. Chapter 5

For the next few days, nothing happened. And the brat acted like nothing ever happened too. I hadn’t heard the shouting voice from downstairs ever since.

  
It was infuriating watching him paint like usual, that bruise still clear on his face. But the painting was almost finished now, and he seemed happy about it. I watched from a shadowed corner as he dabbed at the mouth with red paint, carefully making it darker and darker where the shadows deepened. I lifted my gaze up to see his face - brows furrowed with concentration but happiness still evident in those green orbs. His hair looked soft too, swaying a little from the light breeze coming in through the window behind him, and I felt like pouncing on it and pulling.  
I don’t get the chance though, because suddenly, loud footsteps thundered closer and the wooden door was wrenched open.

  
“Eren.” An unfamiliar looking man snarled, holding up a thoroughly abused piece of paper. “Explain these marks.”

  
“Dad.” Eren visibly paled and stood up shakily, letting go of the paintbrush he had been holding absentmindedly, and I watched it fall onto the floor to leave behind a dark red smudge.

  
“Explain to me NOW.” I faintly realise that this was the voice I had heard shouting the other day, and I unconsciously cringe further back into my corner.

  
Was he the one that put that bruise on the brat’s face?

  
“That…that was because you tore up my essay on the day of the submission-“

  
“Oh, there you go again. Everything’s all my fault isn’t it? Right? You worthless piece of shit.” He raised his fist, and I watched with wide eyes as it connected with Eren’s cheek, sending him crashing down onto the floor.

  
The man, apparently Eren’s Dad, towered over him. Then his bloodshot eyes slid over to where I was crouched, petrified.

 

I froze, my grey eyes staring unblinkingly into those cold, murderous ones. What was he going to do?

  
“A cat, huh.” He spat as he approached me with heavy steps. “Explains why you kept sneaking stuff out of the cupboard.” He reached where I crouched and picked me up by the scruff of my neck. I tensed, never taking my eyes off him.

  
He sneers at me for a moment before flinging me carelessly towards the wall. I smacked into it with my back and slid ungracefully down, scrambling to stand upright again as I saw the Dad loom towards me again. My back ached like hell, but I knew not to show weaknesses.

  
“Dad, stop it!” I heard Eren shout, grabbing onto his Dad’s leg with both of his arms to keep him from going any further. “He has nothing to do with anything!” His voice sounded firm, but when I looked over to where he was, his eyes were uncertain, full of dread.

  
“Get your grimy hands off me.” The Dad lashed around wildly with that captured leg and succeeded in shaking Eren off. His attention turned to his son now, he began kicking at his stomach, forcing whimpers and coughs to escape Eren every time his foot came in contact. I thought that I should do something, but I couldn’t – my body wouldn’t move from the spot.

  
After five clear blows, he landed a final, hard kick - one which made Eren cry out in pain and curl up into a fetal position.

  
And still I stood, unable to do a single damn thing. The man’s attention was now drawn to the half complete painting of me discarded on the floor, still wet with fresh paint. He looked at it for a moment before smirking and stomping on it, grinding his foot across the delicately painted surface.

  
The image of the painting when he lifted his foot off it was something that would haunt my thoughts for days to come.

  
What used to be bright, silvery orbs glinting with mischief was now a grey and white blurred circle, staring out as though a member of the dead. The distorted red from where the almost smiling mouth was now seemed like blood was dribbling off the lower, smudged half of my face.

  
He snickered over at Eren, almost triumphantly.

  
I wanted to rip his foot off his body. I wanted to mangle his face up so his features would be ghastly, unrecognisable, just like the painting he had just demolished. Didn’t he know how hard the brat had been working on that thing?

  
I flatten my ears and growled at the back of the Dad’s head, trying to build up the non-existent courage to leap onto him, claw his eyeballs out.

  
I saw movement behind the large figure and saw Eren rolling over slowly so he was facing me. His face looked pained, and he was trying not to draw any attention from his Dad who was scraping off the paint on the sole of his shoe onto the floor.

  
“Go.”I heard Eren whisper faintly, clutching his stomach and breathing hard. His eyes were wide with urgency. “ _Levi_! Go!" 

When I just stared back, his face scrunched up into an expression I've never seen on him before - anger. Anger and desperation. "Fucking go! Hurry _up_!"

  
If I was strong and fearless like I thought I was, I would have ignored him and stayed.

  
But I was pathetic. Useless. A coward.

  
So without a second thought I turned around and darted out of the open window and into the fading, darkening day, away from the hideous man. Away from Eren. Out of the window where I had stood so many times, waiting for the brat to come upstairs to give me a pat which he knew would be avoided. To give me the tuna I always claimed was the only reason I would come home with him.

  
But it wasn’t. And I knew that.

  
I wondered if I would ever go through it again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can probably tell, I don't like Grisha very much..  
> I'm still in conflict whether I should go for the sad or happy ending ^.^


End file.
